Tz'utujil - Kinship

Kin Groups and Descent.
Tz'utujil kinship is bilateral and lacks clans or any other such
affiliation. Although at one time the fictive-kinship pattern known as
compadrazgo
was important, it now exists primarily in vestigial forms.

Kinship Terminology.
The Tz'utujil have adopted Spanish naming patterns, according to
which children receive the last names of both the mother and the father.
Many of those names, however, are those of the lineage-based units of
indigenous social organization (
calpul, chinamit
) that at one time dominated Tz'utujil society (e.g., Chavajay).
First names tend to conform to the traditional Mayan
k'exel
naming pattern, according to which the firstborn son and daughter take
the name of the father's parents, and the secondborn are named
after the mother's parents. Depending on the community and the
individual, the k'exel pattern may carry ancient religious
significance.